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A suburban Chicago couple is behind bars and their five children are in protective custody after two of them were discovered blindfolded and with their limbs bound in the parking lot of a Walmart, police said.

Adolfo Gomez, 52, and Deborah Gomez, 43, of Northlake, Illinois, were arrested after police visited the store in Lawrence, Kansas on Wednesday and spotted a 5-year-old boy sitting on the ground beside a large SUV with his hands tied behind his back, his legs bound and a blindfold covering his eyes.

A 7-year-old girl was found inside the vehicle, also bound and blindfolded, along with three other children, ages 12, 13 and 15, who were not restrained.

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Adolfo Gomez (left) and his wife Deborah Gomez were arrested after police discovered two of their five children bound and blindfolded in the parking lot of a WalMart store in Illinois

Lawrence police spokesman Sergeant Trent McKinley said he does not know why the two children were tied up and blindfolded.

Mr Gomez standing near the vehicle when an officer approached it in response to a call police received from a concerned shopper.

'When (the man) saw the officer, he tried to get away from him,' Lawrence police spokesman Sgt. Trent McKinley said.

The man ducked inside the vehicle and the officer, concerned that the man could be reaching for a weapon, used a stun gun and put him in handcuffs, McKinley said.

Case: Adolfo Gomez (pictured) and Deborah Gomez were charged in Kansas after two of their children were found bound and blindfolded at a Walmart

Found: Police spotted a boy, 5, on the ground beside a van (pictured) with his hands and legs tied up and a blindfold covering his eyes

'This is an extremely unusual circumstance,' McKinley said.

Officers found the children's mother inside the Walmart and arrested her too, McKinley said.

The adults were arrested on suspicion of child abuse and child endangerment and were scheduled to appear in court in Lawrence on Thursday afternoon.

The father also was accused of obstruction.

'Unusual': Police found the children's mother inside Walmart (pictured) shopping while her daughter, 7, was inside the car also bound and blindfolded

After recently leaving their home in Illinois, the family was forced to pull off the Interstate 70 late Monday when their vehicle had transmission problems, McKinley said, citing interviews with the family.

They were driving to visit relatives in Arizona, he said.

Wal-Mart is helping the police with the investigation, including providing video surveillance footage, company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said on Thursday.

'We are working closely with the Lawrence police department and providing any information we have,' she said.

She would not elaborate on what the video revealed and referred all questions to the police.

The couple have had trouble with law in the past involving their children.

Problems: The family recently left their home in Illinois when they were forced to stop at the Walmart due to car problems on their way to Arizona

They were charged with child endangerment in 1998 for leaving the only two children they had at the time, ages one and two, alone in their Naperville, Illinois apartment for up to eight hours as they worked at night.

An official at the time told the Chicago Tribune that the case was 'among most severe cases of neglect I've seen since I've been on the job.'

Deborah Gomez, who had pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor, ran into legal problems in 2001 for failing to take part in parenting counseling as part of the condition of her guilty plea.

Meanwhile, Adolfo Gomez has been arrested for several crimes, including three cases of driving while intoxicated.

He also spent time in prison on theft and burglary charges in the 1980s.

They couldn't take care of the first two, why did they bring three more to this world? WTF is wrong with people? Take these kids away, before they get hurt even more. I am sure emotional damage is already done but maybe we can prevent something worse from happening to these kids:(

My thought was how terrified must the older kids be to keep their siblings tied up in the car while their parents were gone.

I hope these kids find good homes, but it is much more likely that they'll be tossed into the foster care system and will have worse happen to them.

Quoting nb34:

They couldn't take care of the first two, why did they bring three more to this world? WTF is wrong with people? Take these kids away, before they get hurt even more. I am sure emotional damage is already done but maybe we can prevent something worse from happening to these kids:(

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